Patience

How can we look at a situation in which we are being tempted by the devil and be joyful? By looking to God. "My bretheren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptation;" James 1:2. What? James is telling us "Rejoice." Be joyful when we are being tempted. When I first read that, I was like, was he on crack when he was writing this? Well, not exactly. James was filled with the Holy Ghost. He knew what he was talking about. Why are we supposed to be joyful? "Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience" James 1:3. Oh okay. When we are being tempted of the devil, God is putting our faith to the test. He wants to know whether or not we can put into practice what he is teaching us. For example, a few day ago I read about Elijah's prayer life. I was challenged to have a prayer life like Elijah's. God has been testing my faith, more precisely my prayer life, by filling my schedule and mind with events and the like. He has been teaching me to be patient with my life and give Him ample time to be in my life. But it doesn't end there. Yes, we are to let faith work to produce patience, but patience isn't the end. "But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing" James 1:4. That's the end. We will want nothing but God. We will be perfect and entire. Think about that. We will be perfect! I WANT THAT! I want to be perfect, entire and want nothing BUT God. But, I will never be able to achieve that outside of God. That's not a stipulation either, it's a blessing. I GET to achieve this through Him. I get to be perfect.

What a Prayer Life!

Last night, I did my devotions from James 5:13-18. These verses all talk about the aspect of prayer. James tells us that we need to pray about basically everything. He starts by telling the afflicted to pray, the merry to sing psalms, and the sick to seek out the elders in the church so that they may pray for him. The part that gets me is 16 b, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." That is a verse to take to heart. I need to be more effectual and fervent in my prayer life if I want to see God work. James then proceeds to tell us about Elijah and the way he prayed. James 5:17-18, "Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit." . . .Wow! That is an amazing prayer life. I hope that this will be an encouragement and a challenge to all of you as I know it was for me.